Cinerama Dome and ArcLight Cinemas

6360 Sunset Boulevard,

Los Angeles,
CA90028

I finally made it back to the Dome last night after spending most movie weekends since last fall/summer at the Chinese or the Village (or the new Prime AMC Burbank). They finally were showing something I wanted to see that was not in 3D, X-Men FC. Wow, how depressing it was. The masking that they “fixed” the screen with last summer is even worse now. It is as if the screen looks like it is smiling, with the bottom right and left sides of the masking pulled up about 5 feet on either end. The screen looks small and distorted. It is as if you walked into a carved up theater from the 80’s where the screens didn’t really fit the space but they jammed them in.

It wasn’t that crowded so I walked around trying to find the sweet spot and couldn’t find it. From every part of the theater you can see how distorted the screen is. I guess they are trying to diminish the curve, but isnt that why we come to the Dome, to see a giant curved screen? It was hard to tell, but I cannot imagine it to be bigger then 70 feet now. I know it is supposed to be 86 feet wide, but that has got to be used only for 70mm showings such as when I saw IAMMMMW in fall ‘12. It is so bad (IMO) that the screen they used for Evita (when they put a flat screen in front of the curved screen) looked way better then what I saw last night.

I went out and complained and the manager told me that they had to do that since they “no longer show 3 projector movies anymore as they used to when they opened”. I sighed and walked away.

It would be interesting to see an as close to possible roadshow version of Mad World. Stills in place of footage that is missing may annoy some people so I suppose both versions would be best. I assume the sound as well as the picture is missing. They did make some three projector prints of Mad World those should be close to road show length if any survived. As long the whole Ultra-Panavision frame is shown that is a given but the longest version available would be fine by me.

The 65mm negative for Cleopatra should be in pretty good shape. The Rivoli in New York paid a million dollars in advance to book Cleopatra. A large up front advance was required to play the film. The Rivoli did make its money back and the film had a long roadshow run at that theater. Many people traveled to New York City just to see Cleopatra. Theaters in smaller cities payed a smaller advance and many of those theaters did not make their advance back. The general audience did not appreciate the film. Cleopatra was a run away production there were huge cost over runs and producing a movie in Todd-AO was expensive prints were expensive; Fox was strapped for cash because of Cleopatra. It took years to get most of their money back. Of course Cleopatra was followed by Sound of Music and that was an instant hit and a cash cow in roadshow and in general release. What almost put Fox into bankruptcy was Star, Doctor Doolittle and Hello Dolly these three Todd-AO films did not do well at the box office. Easy Rider was shot in 16mm by anyone who could hold a camera and out grossed Hello Dolly. Viet Nam had made the country cynical. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was designed to roadshow but the public taste had changed it did not do well. While some theaters did well with a popular movie that movie may have been in four channel magnetic, or even mono optical others would get into financial trouble with a 70mm show like Chitty. The inflation of the 70’s and the increase in the cost of energy put many of these big roadshow theaters out of business. There was a roadshow theater in Boston called the Astor it was a Todd-AO theater and it lost money for years in the late 60’s and early 70’s. There now stands a multiplex run by AMC on the same site taking up the same area as the one theater once did.

*since IAMMMMW has a direct link to this theater
having been its premiere attraction I have a
question for you. with the Criterion Blu-ray
coming out in January would you prefer the longest
version possible with actual footage approximating
the original roadshow cut or do you not mind
stills taking the place of lost footage.

*at the end of your last post you said-“while
Cleopatra bankrupted many a theater it was a
grand and glorious time”. how did Cleopatra
bankrupt many a theater? in played its roadshow
run in L.A. and Manhattan for just over year.
I can’t imagine a premiere 1st run theater
keeping a roadshow engagement for a year let alone
over a year if it wasn’t doing reasonable
business. also I wish people would stop referring
to the film as a flop, bomb etc…… as corny
and hokey as it is its still one of the best
historical epics in film history. the only reason
people have referred to it as flop, bomb etc… is
because it cost to frigging much for the dollar
value of the day, in this case June 1963.

After the initial release two scenes in A Clockwork Orange were replaced in order for the X rating to be reduced to an R rating. Kubrick would not let anyone view the original version once the change was made.

Bigjoe59… The decision to cut “2001” was made by Kubrick, himself, who thought that the film could use a bit of tightening, as well as one or two inserts to connect the monolith with the idea to use the animal bone as a weapon. Similarly, with “The Shining” (which came some years after the age of roadshows), Kubrick decided to excise the film’s original coda, as unecessarily explanatory. In both cases, Kubrick having complete control over the way he intended his films to be shown, the trims were either destroyed or locked away in some personal vault.

If the Kubrick Estate is in possession of this material, it is possible that these will one day find their way into the market, but, thus far, Kubrick’s curators have been very faithful to preserving the presentation of his work in strict accordance with his wishes. I don’t think longer cuts will ever be in order, but I could envision the trims making it into an “extras” feature on future DVD/Blu-Ray releases. It would also be great to see the abandoned pie-fight sequence from Dr Strangelove, while we’re at it…

The cut footage was tossed in the trash like so many other things. Prints have faded. There is an an age old phrase and that was faded by Deluxe. The future use of the original negative and footage wasn’t envisioned in the twentieth century. I remember screenings in Hollywood where I met with people in control of this media and they questioned the reason for keeping these old films and negatives. Many a print has been run through a band-saw or used as slug in sound editing. Millions of feet went to be recycled. Some footage has survived and much has not. Cuts were made by the filmmakers and cuts were made by the studio.

Once a film was in general release there was little reason for the studio to cut it. The long films were a problem. Some theaters ran two shows a day some ran three but these long films couldn’t be run more than three times a day. An early show shortly after noon then a mid day show and an evening show. Managers anxious to cut theater payroll and reduce hours (union projectionists didn’t work cheap) may have trimmed some general release prints as much as possible by cutting the intermission (that takes fifteen minutes at least) but once a film was in general release I don’t know of any case where the film once in general release was officially cut by the filmmaker or the studio. Of course these films were butchered for television and could have been cut for re-release. Many a film was butchered for television. Yes, the powers that were in charge figured that once a film was televised that was the end of its useful life.

Star Wars ran almost twenty four hours a day in Los Angeles and other major cities when it was released and many a projectionist sent their kids to Harvard on the overtime pay. Managers were glad to pay the overtime. While Cleopatra bankrupted many a theater. It was a grand and glorious time.

many thanks for your follow up e-mail. if I might repeat
myself-when roadshow runs finished films would then go
to “continuous performances at popular prices” in one
of the many 1st run theaters in Manhattan.in most cases
the films were shortened by simply cutting out the
overture, intermission, entr'acte and exit music. then
went the films went to neighborhood theaters around
NYC the films themselves would be tweaked. to which i
don’t understand why films would be tweaked in their
roadshow runs. wasn’t the whole point of the roadshow
policy to have 2 shows a day? so why did it matter
how long the film was?

unfortunately IAMMMMW was one of the films that was
tweaked when it was still in its quite popular road-
show run. something I don’t understand since again it
only had 2 shows a day anyway.

other films that opened on 2 a day roadshow run that
were unfortunately tweaked shortly after they premiered
were Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia. again something
I don’t get. fortunately in the case of Cleopatra the
footage that was cut within weeks from the premiere
roadshow print of 4hrs. 6 mins. was properly preserved
so the recently released stunning blu-ray disc is the original premiere roadshow cut. sad to say this isn’t
the case with any of the home video versions released to date of IAMMMMW.

its interesting most 2001 devotees probably don’t know
that Kubrick’s original cut was 20mins. longer. what
i’m not sure about is if the longer cut was ever actually used in the premiere roadshow run at Loew’s
Capitol. if the 20mins was cut out say the day before
the film’s premiere was it preserved or just tossed?

one last thought and its about an interesting fact you point out. The Sound of Music was one of the very few
roadshow films that played its second run continuous
performance engagements and its neighborhood theater
runs with the exact same cut that played the Rivoli
for a year and a half. the only difference being the
film played straight thru without an intermission.

Bigjoe in the days of film it took a little effort to tweak a film. Sound and picture had to be cut separately and new prints had to be made. Or sections of the print had to be replaced. If the films were shortened for neighborhood theaters it was done by the theater owners. Do you have any examples of films that were tweaked in their roadshow run? I know Mad World was and there was a longer version of 2001. The standard release print of Sound of Music was the same as the roadshow version and it was not unusual for managers to order the projectionist to skip the intermission.

thanks for your reply but I am still a bit confused.
I understand the studio’s mindset of tweaking a film
when it finished its roadshow run and went to a 2nd run theater. then when it went to the neighborhood theaters
around NYC being tweaked further. but i don’t understand
tweaking a film when it was still in its roadshow
run. at that stage it only had 2 shows a day anyway
so what was the point? making a film 15mins. shorter
say seems bizarre if they still only had 2 shows
a day.

To answer your question Bigjoe most films that were cut were cut to allow more shows per day. A few because the filmmakers felt it was too long. A Star is Born was butchered to allow more shows. The road show version of Mad World was just too long for a comedy so it was cut. The general release prints were cut even more. It was not unusual for the general release print to be quite different from the roadshow print.

thanks for the info about roadshow run of IAMMMMW.
you seem quite knowledgeable so I have a question
for you. in the prime roadshow period of Oct. 1955
thru Dec. 1972 it was common practice to tweak a film
after it finished its initial roadshow run and opened
on a popular prices continuous performance run at
another theater. this was done in many cases by simply
deleting the overture, intermission and exit music.
then when a film went to neighborhood runs around NYC
they would actually tweak the film itself to get in
more performances per day. this is where my question
comes in- what in God’s name was the point of tweaking
a film when it was still in its quite popular
roadshow run? there were only 2 shows a day anyway.
this was also done to “Lawrence of Arabia” and
“Cleopatra”. makes absolutely no sense to me.

also on this page a fellow poster noted that this
coming January 2014 the Criterion Collection was
going to release a Blu-ray of the film in the
longest version available that approximates the
original roadshow cut. Amazon will often list an
upcoming blu-ray disc long before the release date,
sometimes 3 to 4 months. but they have no listing
for a Criterion Collection blu-ray disc of IAMMMMW
at all let alone one with a January date.

I still own a VHS letterboxed copy of an extended version of “IAMMMMW” from MGM/UA in 1995. It inserts deleted sequences that are now a special features supplement into the film and the running time is 182 minutes. Apparently a 70mm complete print was discovered which contained the footage. It is easy to see the difference in picture quality especially since the inserted scenes are rectified for a curved screen and not as sharp. I have not watched this in a long time and I believe this version is missing the overture. When I saw the film at the Dome’s 40th anniversary in 70mm it was the general release version but with police calls during intermission. The current Blu-Ray is exactly the same minus the calls.

Also remember that the majority of the “Roadshow” runs were of the shorter version. The film only played in its longer cut for about 4 weeks in the five premiere theatres: New York, L.A., Chicago, Boston, London; as of about 12/18/63, all of those engagements began playing the new shortened version and all future Roadshow engagements also received the shortened version.

bijoe59… the film would have been a United Artists property, if not owned by Kramer himself. MGM’s ownsership of UA (and therefore IAMMMMW) would not have occured until some 15 or 16 years after the film was edited for general release.

it seems MGM was better at keeping their complete
roadshow prints in first rate condition than other
companies. my point being if the showing of IAMMMMW
is the general release print which is like 40mins.?
shorter than the original roadshow cut why bother?